ITU Telecom World 2015 shines spotlight on global innovation
Young Innovators Competition winners showcase technologies, pitch
ideas and accelerate innovations
Budapest, 14 October 2015 – In an action-packed programme of
workshops, pitching sessions and collaborations,
ITU
Telecom World 2015 Young Innovators Competition winners networked,
shared ideas and benefited from expert mentorship to help accelerate their
innovations globally. The programme took place at the ITU Telecom World 2015
event, which is taking place from 12-15 October in Budapest.
The Young Innovators Competition onsite programme provides an unprecedented
opportunity to connect, share experiences and learn from participants across the
industry, including with other SMEs and start-ups present at the event, from
developed and developing countries alike.
“These talented young people have made great use of ICTs to meet a wide range
of development goals, and their innovations have the potential to impact lives
for the better. Start-ups such as these have a key role to play within our ICT
ecosystem and I am very pleased that ITU Telecom World 2015 is providing them
the global platform to showcase their innovations,” said ITU Secretary-General
Houlin Zhao.
“The Young Innovators are an inspiring group. Every time I speak with them,
it's a window onto a generation of young people willing, ready and able to
answer the challenges of the future using innovative technologies. They
are absolutely a group of young people to watch, they're going to change the
world, and they know it,” said Tayo Akinyemi, CEO, AfriLabs Foundation, and
Young Innovators Competition Mentor.
The programme kicked off with an innovation hub tour held by Kreater, a
leading social innovation agency, covering a range of key entrepreneurial
aspects. The next day the innovators attended a one-day design thinking
workshop, which focused on key success factors for social entrepreneurs and how
to balance their goals with the objectives of donors and the needs they strive
to serve. The workshop was presented by SAP, who will also support the ITU
Telecom World Young Innovators programme with a new challenge focusing on
Healthcare and Big Data in 2015/16.
The learning experience continued with workshops covering topics from time
management to live events, pitch preparation, guerrilla marketing and the
benefits and pitfalls of bootstrapping a venture. Workshops were hosted by NESsT,
Jan Samuelsen, Caroline Meaby, and Clement Charles.
At the event, Young Innovators Competition winners showcased their winning
entries in the InnovationSpace, shared views, and met and networked with
delegates in ITU Telecom World 2015 Forum debates and dialogues. They also took
part in the
Acceleration Platform, a specially-designed day of
dialogues between government, industry and SMEs, including capacity-building,
networking and pitching sessions for Competition winners and SMEs participating
at the event.
“The Acceleration Platform is a great way to offer new resources to the tech
entrepreneurs at ITU Telecom World. Bringing together the industry leaders and
decision makers with the local entrepreneurship community and a rising global
generation of social entrepreneurs shows why ITU Telecom World is the place to
have the kinds of conversations the Acceleration platform seeks to initiate,”
said Christian Schellenberger, Managing Director, Berliner Strategen.
The week’s activities will culminate with Next Generation Day, taking place
on the event’s final day. Organized by ITU together with Hungary’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Trade and Ministry of National Development, the day brings
university students, young entrepreneurs and ICT professionals to ITU Telecom
World 2015 to explore first-hand the future of ICT, in an interactive programme
of workshops, panel discussions and live demos.
Moving forward, new collaborations have been set in motion for the next Young
Innovators Programme, with a challenge launched in cooperation with the German
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and GIZ (Gesellschaft
für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) seeking young social entrepreneurs with big
ideas on how to apply technology to help improve the lives of refugees and
people displaced by situations such as war, oppression, and natural disaster.
The challenge with SAP, acting on the mandate of the SAP University Alliances
programme, was also announced at the event.
The Young Innovators competition is hosted on http://ideas.itu.int,
powered by the Young Innovators Competition’s crowdsourcing partner,
Crowdicity which
brought together some 12’200 young people from around the world for this year’s
competition.
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